Fall Soap Recipe Ideas

RECIPE CORNER: PUMPKIN PIE SOAP

You can use a goat’s milk soap base to create a festive pumpkin pie scented soap that is both good for your skin and tasty smelling. Just remember that anything with goat’s milk in it will only last for about 6 months before it goes bad. To make this soap, you will need the soap base, pigment powders, canned pumpkin, molds, and whatever essential oils you wish to use. You can also make the soap base by scratch, and for that you would need lye, distilled water, olive oil, coconut oil, sunflower oil, and cocoa butter.

If you’re going to make the soap base from scratch, try to have 5% to 6% lye according to the other ingredients. Measure out your water. You should only need 8 ounces for this recipe. Pour 4.19 ounces of lye into the cool water, which should already be in a glass heat-proof container. Stir the mixture with a heat-proof spoon until it dissolves. Do this in a ventilated room to avoid the fumes. Set the lye mixture aside to cool to 90-115 degrees.

Weigh out your oils and mix them while you wait. You’ll need 16 ounces of olive oil, 8 ounces of coconut oil, 3 ounces of sunflower oil, and 3 ounces of cocoa butter. Heat the oils in a stainless (not aluminum) pot until they reach 90-115 degrees.

Blend the lye into the fats using a stick blender. Keep blending until trace (a ridge or line that stays momentarily before receding into the mixture) is reached. Once trace is reached, your soap base is ready to use.

Add 2 ounces of canned pumpkin, your essential oils, and any pigments into the mixture at trace. For a festive soap, use an orange pigment. For the essential oils, use 1 teaspoon of vanilla absolute and 20 to 30 drops of clove essential oil. Mix these added ingredients in very well.

Line a mold with parchment paper, and pour the soap into the mold. You’ll need to cover it, and let it sit for 3-7 days before you can cut it. Try removing the soap from the mold at day 3, and let it sit and harden for 4 more days before cutting.

With this recipe, you can add or remove things as you please for different properties. For example, you can change the oil content as long as you use a lye calculator to determine how much of the oil that you need to add. Adding too much can make the soap too soft, and too little can make it too harsh on the skin. For precise measurements, you must use a digital scale for this process. If you choose to skip many of these steps, you can use a pre-made soap base. This soap base has all the lye already mixed in, and all you have to do is melt it and add the rest of the ingredients. However, the downside of doing it this way is the fact that you cannot control the oil portion of the recipe. If you choose melt and pour soap base, you can skip steps 1-3.
For all of your soap-making needs, and to learn more about the art of making soap, contact us at Essentials by Catalina.